Billy Bob Thornton

Birth name William Robert ThorntonNationalityUSABirth 4 august 1955 (63 years) at Hot Springs (USA)Awards Writers Guild of America Award

Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker, singer-songwriter and drummer. Thornton made his first break with co-writing and starring in the 1992 thriller One False Move and came to international attention after writing, directing, and starring in the independent drama Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He appeared in several major film roles in the 1990s following Sling Blade, including Oliver Stone's neo-noir U Turn (1997), political drama Primary Colors (1998), science fiction disaster Armageddon (1998), which was the highest-grossing film of that year and the crime drama A Simple Plan (1998), which earned him his third Oscar nomination.

In the 2000s, he achieved further success in starring dramas Monster's Ball (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Friday Night Lights (2004), comedies Bandits (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Bad Santa (2003) and actions Eagle Eye (2008) and Faster (2010). In 2014, Thornton starred in the anthology series Fargo and earned a nomination for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie at the Emmy Awards and won Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards.

Thornton is cited as an "anti-film star" who approaches his roles like a character actor and rarely accepts roles in blockbusters. He has been vocal about his disrespect for celebrity culture, choosing to keep his life out of the public eye. However, the attention of the media has proven unavoidable in certain cases, his marriage to Angelina Jolie being a notable example. As an influential actor, Thornton is known for his diversity, wide range, and prolificacy, appearing in at least one film per year nearly every year since 1991. Thornton has written a variety of films, usually set in the Southern United States and mainly co-written with Tom Epperson, including A Family Thing (1996) and The Gift (2000). After Sling Blade, he directed several other films, including Daddy and Them (2001), All the Pretty Horses (2000), and Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012).

Thornton has received the President's Award from Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, a Special Achievement Award from National Board of Review, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was also nominated for an Emmy Award, four Golden Globes, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. In addition to film work, Thornton began a career as a singer-songwriter. He has released four solo albums and is the vocalist of a blues rock band The Boxmasters.

Biography

Relationships and children

Thornton has been married six times, with the first five marriages ending in divorce, and he has four children by three women. From 1978 to 1980, he was married to Melissa Lee Gatlin, with whom he had a daughter, Amanda. Thornton married actress Toni Lawrence in 1986; they separated the following year and divorced in 1988. From 1990 to 1992, he was married to actress Cynda Williams, whom he cast in his writing debut, One False Move (1992). In 1993, Thornton married Playboy model Pietra Dawn Cherniak, with whom he had two sons, Harry James and William; the marriage ended in 1997, with Cherniak accusing Thornton of spousal abuse.

Thornton was engaged to be married to actress Laura Dern, whom he dated from 1997 to 1999, but in 2000, he married actress Angelina Jolie, with whom he starred in Pushing Tin (1999) and who is almost 20 years his junior (Jolie's father Jon Voight is almost 17 years his senior and her late mother Marcheline Bertrand was 5 years his senior). The marriage became known for the couple's eccentric displays of affection, which reportedly included wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks; Thornton later clarified that the "vials" were, instead, two small lockets, each containing only a single drop of blood. Thornton and Jolie announced the adoption of a child from Cambodia in March 2002, but it was later revealed that Jolie had adopted the child as a single parent. They separated in June 2002 and divorced the following year.

Since 2003, Thornton has been in a relationship with makeup effects crew member Connie Angland, with whom he has a daughter, Bella. The family lives in Los Angeles, California. Thornton has said that he likely will not marry again, saying that he believes marriage "doesn't work" for him. In February 2015, Thornton's representatives confirmed that he and Angland were married on October 22, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.

Health issues
During his early years in Los Angeles, Thornton was admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with myocarditis, a heart condition that has been related to malnutrition. He has since said that he is vegan and "extremely healthy."

Thornton has obsessive–compulsive disorder. Various idiosyncratic behaviors have been well documented in interviews with Thornton; among these is a phobia of antique furniture—a disorder shared by Dwight Yoakam's character Doyle Hargraves in the Thornton-penned Sling Blade, and by Thornton's own character in the 2001 film Bandits. Additionally, he has stated that he has a fear of certain types of silverware, a trait assumed by his character Hank Grotowski in 2001's Monster's Ball, in which Grotowski insists on a plastic spoon for his daily bowl of chocolate ice cream. In a 2004 interview with The Independent, Thornton explained: "It's just that I won't use real silver. You know, like the big, old, heavy-ass forks and knives, I can't do that. It's the same thing as the antique furniture. I just don't like old stuff. I'm creeped out by it, and I have no explanation why...I don't have a phobia about American antiques, it's mostly French—you know, like the big, old, gold-carved chairs with the velvet cushions. The Louis XIV type. That's what creeps me out. I can spot the imitation antiques a mile off. They have a different vibe. Not as much dust."

Other
Thornton is a baseball fan, and his favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals. He has said that his childhood dream was to play for the Cardinals. He narrated The 2006 World Series Film, the year-end retrospective DVD chronicling the Cardinals' championship season. Thornton is also a professed fan of the Indianapolis Colts football team.

, 1h44Directed byDoug EllinOriginUSAGenresDrama, Comedy, Romantic comedyThemesFilms about filmsActorsJeremy Piven, Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara, Kevin Connolly, Kevin Dillon, Billy Bob ThorntonRoles FinancierRating65% Vincent "Vince" Chase, who separated from his wife after nine days of marriage, wants to do something new in his career. He calls his former agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold, who offers Vince a leading role in his first studio production. Vince says he will only star in it if he directs. Eight months later, Hyde, the directorial debut by Vince, is in the middle of post-production and is over budget by $15 million. Needing more money, Vince asks Ari if they can get an additional $10 million to complete the movie. Reluctant, but wanting to please him, Ari flies to Texas to meet the co-financiers of the movie; Larsen McCredle and his son Travis to give them the money. Hesitant, Larsen sends Travis with Ari back to Los Angeles to see a cut of the film at Vince's private screening.

, 1h43OriginUSAGenresDrama, ThrillerActorsPatrick Wilson, Lena Headey, Dianna Agron, Richard Dreyfuss, John Cho, Ray WinstoneRating57% Sam Ellis (Patrick Wilson) is a man on the rise – a hot-shot prosecutor on the cusp of a bright future. When an intern (Dianna Agron) at the office becomes infatuated with him, Sam unwisely attempts to quiet his desires by seeing a high class escort — only to discover that the experience is more fulfilling and exhilarating than he could have imagined. A second appointment with an escort soon follows, and a third, sending his once idyllic life spiraling out of control. In the midst of wrestling with his demons, he suddenly finds himself being groomed to run for U.S. Congress — thrusting him into the public spotlight, and forcing him to take increasingly dangerous measures to keep the press, the law and his wife (Lena Headey) off his trail.

, 2h2Directed byBilly Bob ThorntonOriginUSAGenresDrama, Comedy-dramaActorsBilly Bob Thornton, Robert Duvall, Shawnee Smith, Kevin Bacon, John Hurt, Marshall AllmanRoles Skip CaldwellRating62% The film is set in 1969 Morrison, Alabama. The Caldwell family includes three World War II veterans—brothers played by Thornton, Bacon and Patrick—their sister Donna (LaNasa), and a patriarch, Jim Caldwell (Duvall), who is a World War I veteran. The Caldwells are involved in a cultural clash with the Bedfords, a family which includes Phillip (Stevenson), a World War II veteran, his sister Camilla (O'Connor), and their father Kingsley (Hurt), also a World War I veteran.

, 1h38OriginUSAGenresComedy, Action, CrimeThemesFilms about music and musicians, Musical filmsActorsAndre Braugher, Clayne Crawford, Natalie Martinez, Daniel Cudmore, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Travis FimmelRoles CarlosRating63% In Alabama, Oodie brothers Brick, Lincoln and McQueen work as vigilantes for the man who raised them, Sheriff Henry Millard; they bypass the legal system to murder criminals, keeping the crime rate the lowest in the state. After one of their assaults, they are approached by Celeste, a witness to the incident, who offers them $25,000 to rescue her godson Rob and kill his godfather and captor, the drug lord Carlos. The trio accept. Meanwhile, ATF agent Anthony Reese approaches Millard about the spree of criminal deaths and his suspects; the Oodie brothers. Millard is intentionally obstructive to Reese's request for aid.